Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Take Me Out At The Ballgame

This morning, while practicing for the yearly Dem vs Rep charity congressional baseball game - played since 1909 - scheduled to take place Thursday at Nationals Park, a gunman opened fire on those assembled.

They included Steve Scalise (majority whip), Rand Paul, Mo Brooks, and many others who comprise the GOP congressional baseball team and their security details.

Yes, the assembled were Republicans.

And no, that should not matter.

Yet as soon as the BREAKING NEWS gifs went up on social media, the outrage lines were drawn. GOPers pointing fingers at violent liberals (not exactly our hallmark, but whatever fuels your faux indignation), and Dems quick to point to the GOP legislation that allows mentally ill people to legally purchase weapons - as if that makes it ok that these people were shot at.

None of this is right, none of this is helpful.

But politicizing outrage has become a predictable piece of the fallout following an attack of any kind.

I do not support or agree with the political leanings of people like Paul or Scalise (who is currently undergoing surgery following having been shot in the hip), but I certainly do not believe they deserve to have their lives endangered because of their beliefs. I abhor, on every possible level, the current occupant of the Oval Office, but I do not wish him harm.

But this is the kind of thing being fomented by dog whistles (see Eric Trump literally saying Democrats "are not people"), micro aggressions (how many times can Kamala Harris be interrupted by white men while asking questions?), and careless verbiage (2nd amendment solutions, anyone?).

Reading the comments and Tweets this morning following this shooting, the shots being fired online are indicative of a citizenry harshly divided, and gleefully kept so, by each side of the aisle. And the danger in that exercise is not found within people like you or me - regardless of which side you fall on - it is within the fringe.

And fringe exists on every side of the political pillow.

The shooter this morning is in custody, and described as a "white male." (James T. Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Illinois - and to save you from stalking his FB page, he was a Bernie Sanders supporter, Hillary hater) So, of course, we will see words like "mentally disturbed" instead of terrorist, "terrorist" being reserved as the synonym for "brown."

As to his motive? NO ONE KNOWS RIGHT NOW. So how about we focus on the fact that this happened instead of trying to politicize our outrage and weaponize it as a sling or arrow against the other side? Yes, 93 people a day die in gun violence in this country, and yes, that needs discussed, addressed, remedied, but attempting to add to that number by killing politicians is not the answer.

I see liberals throwing this in the face of conservatives right now, as if they somehow deserved this because of their flawed legislative policies and hypocrisy. STOP. Feeling vindicated in the face of bloodshed is just perverse. I see conservatives viciously attacking liberals this morning. And I have to ask, where has this outrage been as not one, but two Democrats have dropped out of races in the past two weeks because of death threats against them? Surely, if politically inspired violence is what you are railing against this morning, your rage has been on their behalf as well, right? Right???

<insert crickets>

Literally. I have asked this question to several this morning and have been met with either silence, being blocked, or "This is not the same thing libtard."

How is this not the same thing? People are being targeted, threatened. This morning literal blood was shed on a baseball field.

It is exactly the same thing, it is unacceptable, and should be sickening to anyone, anywhere on the political spectrum, for the same reason: IT IS WRONG.

Yet because we are increasingly encouraged to see one another not as fellow human beings, but as opposition soldiers, this is what we get.

Those Republicans did not deserve to be shot at. Gabby Giffords did not deserve to be shot. Planned Parenthood workers did not deserve to be shot at. Revelers at the Pulse nightclub did not deserve to be shot at. Lincoln, Kennedy, Garfield, Reagan, McKinley, Roosevelt, Long, Malcolm X, MLK, Wallace - did not deserve to have their bodies violated by bullets.

I get it - we are all frustrated, demoralized, angered, feeling impotent in the face of an election that each day reveals more evidence of being hacked, outraged as healthcare is threatened behind closed doors, and incredulous as the checks and balances of our system seem to be failing. But violence is not the answer to any of it.

This morning people gathered on a ballfield to prepare for a charity event. They were shot at, five were shot.

If we cannot come together to condemn this act from ALL SIDES, then we, as a citizenry are simply striking out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thoughts are with all those who were wounded and traumatized in this attack this morning. And THANKS go out to the Capitol Police who were able to apprehend the shooter.

Comments

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One of the things that stuck in my craw about this was FINALLY, Paul Ryan, who has been mostly silent since November 9, 2016, comes out and speaks against this action and all I could think was, "was it ONLY because it was Republicans who were fired upon?" He spoke of us coming together for the sake of humanity, but as you asked above, where was he and other GOP'ers when not, one but TWO Democratic candidates withdrew because they had their lives threatened. They SHOULD have been saying something then as well.

It's tragic that we are so divided that we can't even agree that this is wrong across the board. That there is so much finger pointing. The shooter had to be motivated. And if we don't figure out what it was that motivated him and figure out how to fix it this will happen again. This is coming from gut level anger, the likes of which we have not seen in years.